It appears we’ll get a fairly early opportunity to see Eminem return to Australia when he releases his new album The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (otherwise known as MMLP2), which is due in November. Herald Sun’s Nui Te Koha is reporting that promoter Paul Dainty is set to announce a run of Australian dates, which will include Melbourne’s Docklands Stadium amongst the soon to be announced venues.

The dates are yet to be locked in, but word has it, it will be around February and likely going on in to March. He last toured here back in late 2011, promoted by Dainty and co. But not without some troubles getting him in to the country. The controversial rapper has previously had troubles with a tour in 2001, and after some delays with the 2011 announcement he was finally allowed in to the country. This time around we’re hoping it’s a fairly straight forward process and the February/March prediction is a solid time frame to be locked in.

What’s also interesting is that Soundwave Festival was “invited to get involved” in negotiations, and promoter AJ Maddah had previously said he would be open to more aggressive forms of rap and hip-hop after including Cypress Hill on the 2013 lineup bill. But it seems Eminem was turned down after it became clear that he would prefer to do solo shows instead.

Eminem recently teased us with a new single titled Berzerk, which will feature on the MMLP2 album. It premiered on his own Sirius/XFM radio station Shade 45, and nearly brought down the entire internet to a stand still after a flurry of downloads of the ripped version as posted on various music blogs. This forced the real Slim Shady to post the real studio version of the single on his own website.

The Marshall Mathers LP 2 will be released internationally on 5th November, and features production from Dr. Dre and Rick Rubin.

UPDATE: Industry sources have confirmed to TheMusic.com.au that Shady will make an official tour announcement this October in regards to a run of headlining Australian and New Zealand shows for February 2014.

Aussie cities Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane will be getting their own shows, with NZ scoring an Em show in Auckland. Auckland’s Western Springs Stadium have confirmed they are reserving the stadium for a big-scale event on Saturday, 15th February, 2014 though this is not confirmed to be an Eminem show.

There is also talk of a high-profile support slot with names such as Iggy Azealia, T.I., J Cole, NeYo and Kendrick Lamar being thrown. Stand by for more news.